Exploring the Internal Dynamics of Corporate Social Responsibility Implementation

The way corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies unfold inside organizations remains a black box. This qualitative study delves into the inner workings of CSR. We inductively investigate the role of tangible and intangible resources and how resource flows are linked to various organizational departments involved in the execution of CSR. Our research question is: How are resources allocated for CSR distributed among organizational departments and why do these resources shift in the course of CSR implementation? We find six mechanisms explaining why resources are dynamically allocated to different departments and why such resource shifts trigger organizational transition towards more advanced levels of CSR implementation. Our research contributes to the literature that examines how CSR activities and strategies unfold within businesses. More generally, this allows better understanding of intra-organizational dynamics of firms’ strategic responses to normative pressures.